Convicted trash titan Chuck Rizzo says he was bullied in his youth and used as an adult.

The government says don't buy it. He's a greedy crook who bribed politicians, knew what he was doing and school yard bullies had nothing to do with it, argue prosecutors, who rebuked Rizzo in a court filing Monday for trying to "recharacterize himself as the victim in this drama."

Prosecutors were referring to last week's court filing by Rizzo's lawyers, who said the millionaire executive was spit on and mocked as a kid, and shunned in high school by preppy Grosse Pointers.

Rizzo's 1989 Grosse Pointe North High School yearbook, however, tells a slightly different story. 

Rizzo was voted "Most Attractive" in a class of nearly 300 students. In the yearbook, Rizzo is pictured in a brown leather jacket flashing a big grin with rosy cheeks and a head full of curly brown hair.  

"I went to high school with him at Grosse Pointe North. Always seemed like a popular guy. Never seen him bullied,"  a 1989 Grosse Pointe North graduate told the Free Press in an e-mail.  "Can't say I ever saw him shunned. People voted most attractive in the class rarely are. You know?"

Another former Grosse Pointe North student recalled Rizzo being popular with older girls when he was an underclassman, saying:  "I don't remember him being bullied. I actually remember him being pretty shy, but the girls really thought he was cute and forced him into popularity. It was older girls than him." 

Rizzo's lawyers made the claim about Rizzo's Grosse Pointe experience after his family moved to the affluent suburb from rural Macomb County in his teens.

“He noticed that many families were better off than his, and that his clothes and personality did not fit into the preppy school culture. Many peers spoke negatively of him and looked down on him,” his lawyers wrote in a court document explaining Rizzo's past.

In his senior year, Rizzo also was voted "Least Likely to Be Found in Class," a designation that follows another narrative laid out by his lawyers: Rizzo struggled in school and ignored his academics as he was more focused on growing his lawn business and making something big of himself one day.

The government doesn't dispute the latter part as Rizzo would go on to build a garbage empire, Rizzo Environmental Services (RES), that dominated the trash hauling industry in metro Detroit, serving more than 50 communities by 2016.

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"Rizzo is a highly capable, ambitious, hardworking, big-hearted and intelligent man," Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Gardey and Michael Bullotta wrote in Monday's filing. But, they added:

"Instead of using those skills and attributes for the good, Rizzo chose to satisfy his personal greed by breaking the law whenever and wherever it served his purposes."

On Monday, Rizzo will be sentenced for his role in a widespread corruption scheme that involved him stealing $900,000 from his trash company to pay off public officials and to enrich him and his family. Some of the money helped Rizzo build his $2.5-million mansion, prosecutors said. 

The government also argued that Rizzo was not "just stealing from some faceless 'New York private equity firm,' which had invested millions in RES." Instead, Rizzo stole from real investors, including the Boy Scouts of America and pensioners in Montana and Arizona. 

"Rizzo relentlessly pursued the accumulation of money, property and corporate power with the goal of making himself as wealthy as possible," the government argues. "While the two-bit corrupt politicians with whom he dealt sought a few thousand dollars here, a few thousand dollars there, in order to satisfy their petty greed, Rizzo had grander ambitions."

Prosecutors want to lock Rizzo up for six years, though he could get 10. Rizzo, who cut a plea deal in the case, is currently jailed on a bond violation for intimidating a witness in the case. He also has agreed to forfeit $4 million as part of his punishment.

"Ultimately, this case is about greed. It's about Rizzo's greed," the prosecution argues. "Although Rizzo seeks to recharacterize himself as the victim in this drama, his own actions and words demonstrate that he was the epitome of a ruthless CEO breaking the law and committing crimes, simply to get more money."

Rizzo’s lawyers, meanwhile, are pushing for less than six years, arguing he cooperated extensively, wore a wire for the FBI and helped nab numerous crooked politicians and businessmen in Macomb County. To date, the government has charged 20 individuals in the case, of which 15 have pleaded guilty.

Rizzo's lawyers also have argued that 30-plus communities saved a combined $28.8 million by contracting with Rizzo Environmental Services over competitors. They also claim that the bribers initiated the criminal activity with Rizzo, not the other way around.

The government disagrees, arguing Rizzo "was paying bribes in order to get real and significant new economic benefits" for his company and himself that "amounted to millions of dollars." His bigger goal, it said, was growing the firm through corrupt contracts so that he could make even more money when it came time to sell his equity interest in RES to another buyer, which he ultimately did in 2016.

"The true benefit to Rizzo is measured by the millions he made when RES was finally sold," prosecutors argue in court documents. "Although Rizzo seeks to minimize the nature of his fraud scheme, in reality, Rizzo's embezzlement was extensive, long-standing and profitable."

Rizzo will be sentenced before U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland.


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